Not an Original idea but a decent-ish film

Rating: 4/10 (29 September 2005)

All the ideas of this film are taken from other places.
The whole one story which we think is right and actually turns out to be the total opposite is taken from The Running Man. The whole being chased, once again The Running Man & Blade Runner, also Logan's Run.
Establishing that there has been some sort of pollution and people can't go outside apart from one place on Earth known as The Island is the first 20 minutes or so of the film. We learn about their lifestyle and characters, learn a little about The Island. You get there by winning the lottery. Everyone dressing the same and looking the same and not knowing anything about sex? Directly lifted from George Lucas' THX 1138.
The main character has weird dreams of drowning, being chased and killed or hurt. You totally know most of these things are going to happen or come close to happening which they do.
Ewan McGregors character is lost in a sea of people who want to all live the same life and strive for the same dream. He wants to explore, learn new things and ask the difficult questions that he can't seem to get answers to. Very Blade Runner.
Scarlett Johansonn is pretty and nice to look at but her acting is utter garbage. I had no fun trying to watch her, she gave no assistance to the story at all. Her part could have been played by anybody.
Steve Buscimi plays himself pretty much, but I felt his character could have been used far better. Killing him was pointless, especially after he'd just told the clones not to trust anyone. The whole point there could have set him up to finally be the person to betray them.
Sean Bean's character really seemed to me NOT to be the kind of person to get his hands dirty, so his fight scene near the end seemed pointless and tacked on. The last 20 minutes of the film were pretty pointless, these clones seemed intelligent. They escaped, they were free. Why they thought their sponsors would help them puzzled me.
Why they went back also seemed very tacked on at the last minute, the script writer thought perhaps he didn't have enough material. The "sex" scene was totally pointless, it was not needed.
On the whole the ideas behind this film were good, visuals were excellent and the plot ran fairly well except for a few strange ideas. The whole missing a shoe thing could have been resolved. Most people will enjoy this film, I personally felt it could have been a whole lot better and was left wanting more.